1
as in hopeless
not capable of being cured or reformed
an irretrievable drug addict who had wasted a once-promising life
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in irreparable
not capable of being repaired, regained, or undone
this is just an irretrievable mess, so let's start all over again
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of irretrievable
Days before, Sheriff Nanos had said images were irretrievable.
—
Richard Ruelas, AZCentral.com, 1 Mar. 2026
This dreamscape of the island, like that of the jungle, illuminates in children’s literature a sense of utopia and longing about childhood as a not-quite-place, situated in an irretrievable past-yet-future, while at the same time rooted in an anti-utopian logic of adulthood.
—Literary Hub, 17 Nov. 2025
Alcaraz broke the Italian twice, winning the set with an incredible backhand flick from what looked like an irretrievable position and cupping his ear.
—Tim Ellis, Forbes.com, 13 July 2025
There is a genuinely irretrievable, ephemeral, low-res version of the movie.
—Rachel Handler, Vulture, 17 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for irretrievable
Richard Ruelas, AZCentral.com, 1 Mar. 2026
This dreamscape of the island, like that of the jungle, illuminates in children’s literature a sense of utopia and longing about childhood as a not-quite-place, situated in an irretrievable past-yet-future, while at the same time rooted in an anti-utopian logic of adulthood.
—Literary Hub, 17 Nov. 2025
Alcaraz broke the Italian twice, winning the set with an incredible backhand flick from what looked like an irretrievable position and cupping his ear.
—Tim Ellis, Forbes.com, 13 July 2025
There is a genuinely irretrievable, ephemeral, low-res version of the movie.
—Rachel Handler, Vulture, 17 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for irretrievable
Recent Examples of Synonyms for irretrievable
Adjective
-
At least Duncan’s daughter and fellow cadet, Teela (Eire Farrell), takes pity on the hopeless tyke.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
4 June 2026
-
Hence the constant reports that young people are anxious, lonely, stressed, hopeless.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
27 May 2026
Adjective
-
What was so irreparable, so insufferable?—
Brooks Kubena,
New York Times,
1 June 2026
-
The damage can lead to further problems and be irreparable.—
Bruce Y. Lee,
Forbes.com,
31 May 2026
Adjective
-
Just two days later, an MRI scan showed that the keen gymnast and netball player had an inoperable and incurable DIPG.—
Adam England,
PEOPLE,
25 May 2026
-
Garden roses can also pick up the incurable rose rosette disease from wild-growing multiflora roses—an invasive rose with five-petaled, white flowers.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
21 May 2026
Adjective
-
Meanwhile, in the ‘Before Times,’ journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick) and Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) uncover a conspiracy that pulls them into a chain of events with catastrophic, irreversible consequences.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
2 June 2026
-
Progress that once seemed irreversible is now unraveling.—
Christina Ray Stanton,
Time,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
Countless documents were left lying out in the open and quickly became irrecoverable.—
Amer Matar,
The Dial,
26 May 2026
-
At the same time, much of the world is facing water bankruptcy, meaning people and industries are using more fresh water than nature can replenish, leading to irrecoverable ecosystem damages.—
Abraham Nunbogu,
Fortune,
29 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The business also has made Space Shuttle drag parachutes for the orbiter, and parachutes that deploy from the tails of F-22 and F-35 military jets to break them from unrecoverable stalls or spins.—
Pat Maio,
Oc Register,
29 May 2026
-
By the time the offline assay confirmed what the cells were doing, hours had passed, and the batch was unrecoverable.—
Hamid Noori,
Forbes.com,
28 May 2026
Adjective
-
This is why the tragedy of Gaza seems definitive and irremediable: because a state and an army that pretend to be the expression of that culture, as the heirs of that history, have betrayed the Jewish intellectual contribution to modern civilization.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
24 Mar. 2026
-
Many of the country’s top psychiatric groups warn that there is no empirical standard for determining whether a mental-health condition is irremediable.—
Elizabeth Bruenig,
The Atlantic,
4 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Nilsson, an incorrigible Midwesterner, had a history of downplaying her depth.—
Jeremy Lybarger,
Artforum,
2 June 2026
-
Daisy’s strategy with Mike has always been to treat him like a misbehaved child, which works insofar as scolding an incorrigible child does.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
10 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Irretrievable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/irretrievable. Accessed 8 Jun. 2026.
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